Volkswagen announced on Monday it has come to an agreement with Belgian materials company Umicore for a €3 billion battery parts joint venture (JV). With this move, Volkswagen has become the latest automaker to bring battery supply chain closer to home in its shift towards electric vehicles (EVs). Under the agreement, raw materials will still be sourced from across the world, but cathode production will be made in Europe, likely at Umicore’s Poland plant.

The JV, between Umicore and Volkswagen’s battery unit PowerCo, also plan to collaborate on recycling metals from battery materials.

Automakers across Europe has been looking to secure cooperation with battery makers in the continent as political pressure grows to bring supply chain, currently dominated by Asia, closer to home.

Volkswagen is targeting 70% of its sales in Europe to be fully electric by 2030, and is increasingly trying to bring its supply chains to the region to protect them from geopolitical tensions and reduce transport costs.

However, Europe’s battery industry is still fledgling. Mining of raw materials in countries such as Germany and Portugal has been held up by regulations and recycling facilities unable to develop at scale without the raw material on hand.

Under the €3 billion JV,  Umicore will produce enough battery precursor and cathode material for 160 gigawatt hours (GWh) of battery capacity, or enough to power 2.2 million vehicles.

It will start with material for 40 GWh of capacity by 2026 at Volkswagen’s first battery plant in Germany. The carmaker plans to build six battery factories in Europe totaling 240 GWh of capacity by 2030.

Umicore said last week it saw potential to increase the capacity of its Poland plant, which began production in July, to over 200 GWh in the second half of the decade, enough to power around three million EVs.

The companies also agreed that Umicore would refine cathode material for the first 60 GWh of capacity.